NEATH (Welsh, Castell-Nedd), a municipal borough and market-town of Glamorganshire, South Wales, situated near the mouth of the Neath or Nedd, on the G.W.R., 71 m. E.N.E. of Swansea. Pop. (1931) 33,322.
The town perhaps occupies the site of the Roman Nidum on the Julia Maritima from which a vicinal road branched off here for Brecon. At the Norman conquest of Glamorgan, Fitzhamon gave the district between the Neath and the Tawe to Richard de Granaville, who built on the west banks of the Neath first a castle and then in 1129 a Cistercian abbey, to whose monks he later gave all his possessions in the district. All traces of this castle have disappeared. Another castle, built in the same century, on the east bank, was held direct by the lords of Glamorgan, as the westernmost outpost of their lordship. It was frequently attacked by the Welsh, notably in 1231 when it was taken, and the town demolished by Llewelyn ab Iorwerth. The portcullis gate and a tower are all that remain of it ; of the abbey there still exist the external walls, with parts of the chapel, vaulted chapter-house, refectory and abbot's house. Neath is a borough by prescription and received its first charter in the 12th century from William, earl of Gloucester, who granted its burgesses the same customs as those of Cardiff. Other charters were granted to it by suc cessive lords of Glamorgan in 129o, 1340, 1421 and 1423. By the first of these (129o) the town was granted a fair on St. Margaret's Day (July 20) and as the abbey had extensive
sheep walks the trade in wool was considerable. In 1685 James II. granted a further charter. At the Dissolution the abbey and the manor of Cadoxton (part of its possessions) were sold to Sir Richard Williams or Cromwell. Copper smelting has been carried on in or near the town since 1584 when the Mines Royal Society set up works at Neath Abbey; the industry attained huge pro portions a century later under Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who from 1695 carried on copper and lead smelting at Melincrythan. With the development of the South Wales coalfield Neath con tinued its metallurgical associations and concentrated on the by product industries, thus locally diminishing to some extent the marked depression that has characterized this coalfield since the collapse of the post-war boom in Besides the copper works the town possesses tinplate, steel and galvanised sheet works, foundries and engineering works. In the neighbourhood there are numerous collieries. The Neath Canal, from the upper part of the Vale of Neath to Briton Ferry ( r3 m.), passes through the town, which is also connected with Swansea by another canal.
One time independent railway lines now form important branches of the G.W.R. to the Rhondda, Aberdare and Brecon respectively.